Tuesday

Building work has started at school for my new classroom, proper exciting stuff.  Our room is a bit small this year ith as to be said so hopefully it'll be finished soon.

I didn't fancy gymnastics this week, i'm putting it down to end of term burn out.

It was also my parents evening.  It went very well by all accounts.  My teacher was most impressed with my manners and said that I was doing really well with my work and with a bit more effort I could be doing really, really well.

She also mentioned that I seemed really tired, again, i'll put it down to end of term burnout.  That and post Ufton Court exhaustion.  

Wednesday

Our morning tardiness came to a head today as once again we failed to be ready for school despite repeated requests from mum.

Hmmmm, it wasn't great it has to be said.  I didn't help matters by fooling Ellis into thinking we had ages left to get ready either.

Anyway, Mum was furious with us.  Not a great start to the day.

Thursday

Last day of term, yay!

Dad was allowed to visit us in class in the afternoon.  We'd made crumble with the apples from the tree in our playground to sell to the parents for charity, Dad assured me it was delicious.  I didn't fancy it.  I loved showing him round and showing him my work books, even if he did find my drawing of a Tudor person with their clothing labelled hilarious.  I might have accidentally mis-spelt the word 'tights' as 'tits'

It was a lovely day so we hung around the playground afterwards to play, William and Liam hung around too and we had a brilliant game of hide and seek.

Meanwhile we were doing our halloween traditional thriller dance. Thankfully Dad passed by and I persuaded him to go home to fetch my scary mask and cape before we put on our weekly show.  We really enjoyed the zombie moves.

In another weird turn of events we actually went food shopping as a family after mum had finished work.

And once Dad had lightened up a bit, we really rather enjoyed it.

Not as good as the Tesco man delivering it while we watch telly though really.

Friday

First day of our half term break due to an 'inset day'

Mum was off with us, which was fortunate as I had been up most of the night throwing up.  A day on the sofa and lots of snuggles sorted me out though.

I cleared off to Alastairs and we headed for the park and the sweet shop too (thanks for the money Mum ).  Robert and Jake also appeared during the day too.

In the evening I helped Andy get past the level he was stuck on playing Candy Crush.....

Saturday

Mum said I needed a haircut, I disagreed.  Dad suggested we ride down the town on our bikes and both get a trim.....I agreed instantly.  It was great, I got to chain my bike up using my super cool snake lock and everything.  We were home and trimmed in no time at all, much quicker than if we'd taken the car I think.

In the afternoon we went to the races.

We hadn't been for ages, Auntie Chridtine (or should I actually say Uncle Ian) had sorted us out with tickets to the posh members enclosure, brilliant, we could get right along side the finishing post.

Anyway, the real business was of course the betting.  I did very well, a winner and an each way came in for me.

I also bagged a good win, as did Dad.

Mum sadly won nothing, nada, zilch.  We loved reminding her of that.

We headed back to Auntie Christines park and ride facility afterwards, fortunately she had some cake that she had made that needed eating and Darcey was there too, lovely end to the day.

Sunday

We celebrated Dads birthday a day early, so this involved bestowing him with our fantastic home made cards early doors and then heading off to the cinema to watch the film Planes.

Which we all loved, even the grown ups, who declared it much better than they thought it would be.

We headed off to Pizza Hut for lunch afterwards, where we bumped into Kimi and Marny who were also up there for a decent feed before next week.....

We went home and sorted Dad's birthday cake out with several thousand candles that I jammed into it (a few of which I did upside down in haste)

We rounded the day off with a Just Dance session on the Wii.

Monday

Dad's real birthday, and also holiday time!

Yep, we were all packed and ready to head off to Fuerteventura with Andy, Kimi, Marny, Ben and Rach and for once it wasn't at silly o'clock meaning we actually had time for breakfast before we left for once.

We were flying from Gatwick, fortunatley the forecast devastating storm failed to really materialise so we were all systems go.  It was really cool in the airport carpark as we got the bags out of the car, there was a plane buzzing over our heads every few seconds to land.

We even had time to have a civilised lunch at the pub at the airport.

We boarded our flight and were on our way.  It was a reasonably long flight at just over 4 hours but with everyone for company and our Ipods it soon passed by.

We arrived and straight away noticed it was a good deal warmer than home.

The baggage arrived and we were off to find our hire car, the rather hideous looking Opel Combi.  If I thought it looked bad on the internet when it was booked it looked even worse in the flesh when we finally tracked it down in the darkest recess of the car park.

We were soon on the road and making good progress towards our villa,it was difficult to really see what the island was like as it was dark by now.

In a very uncharacteristic bit of useful behaviour from Dad he actually managed to navigate the last few tricky kilometres to our villa.

It looked lovely, even though it was dark.  Great pool, outdoor space and a lovely hammock to relax in:

We also managed to secure ourslves the master suite with luxurious king size bed:

Which also had a rather lovely jacuzzi bath too:

It had been a pretty long day so we needed our bed.....

Tuesday

We got to see everything in daylight for the first time, it was so different to anywhere else we'd been before thats for sure.

Everything was pretty brown, there was no green grass at all, it was pretty cool though, like being on the moon or something!

There were volcanic rocks all over the place, they even use it to make dry stone walls, being a fan of rocks in general I lapped it up.

I made sure I was first one in the pool (well, I can't believe Dad or Andy went in that late last night when we got here).

The pool was really lovely and we certainly made the most of it, they'd even left us an inflatible shark to play with:

We took a wander to the local bakery to pick up some lunch and then headed off to the beach at El Cotillo.

It has to be said it was pretty windy.

It was indeed, it made everyones lunch just a little bit gritty.

Never the less, the sun was out and it was lovely and warm, so in the sea we went, complete with masks and snorkels to see what we could see.  Much more than in Cornwall was the answer.  To the side of the lagoon where small rocks started to crop up there were loads and loads of fish.  Darting among the rocks, and not dull little tiddlers either.  They were brightly coloured and swimming in shoals, it was wonderful.

I stayed a bit closer to shore with Marny, we had an ace time.

On the way home we dipped into the local supermarket to pick up some supplies for the week. Seeing as we were in Spain that meant lemon Fanta and chorizo of course.

In the evening we enjoyed a lovely jacuzzi bath....the bubbles got pretty out of control it has to be said.

Wednesday

A pattern was starting to emerge for the holiday, we spent a lot of time just chilling out and splashing in the pool.

Fine by me!

But with my sense of adventure I was glad to take a trip out in the afternoon for a bit of an explore.  We headed towards Corallejo which looked like fun with it's waterpark and plethora of tut shops.

We carried on down the east coast where the road took us along the coast and through sand dunes so big it looked like the desert.

I suggested we pull over and go for a walk, so we did!

It was pretty awesome, wandering around in the sand:

It was also brilliant for long jump practice:

We got back inthe car and headed up into the mountains.  All extinct volcanoes, pretty cool.

We didn't really know where we were headed so just picked the most interesting looking roads.

Not sure thsts the best policy in a place like the Canary Islands though, the roads suddenly turn into rough dirt tracks.

Which made it all the more interesting if you ask me, the dirt tracks were super bumpy.

We eventually decided to make a u-turn on one particular track when things got so remote we woke the local sleeping donkeys:

We eventually re-joined semi civilisation and somehow ended up at the viewing platform for Mount Tindaya.

We could see for miles!

Thursday

Another lazy morning around the villa and pool.

Yeah, we could get quite used to this.

Another exploration mission for the afternoon though, directly north from our villa on another dirt track. I was pretty disappointed that it turned back into a proper road, although I needn't have been as it soon turned into another dirt track.

This one went on for miles and miles, all along the coast.

We passed loads of lagoons and coves and sand dunes as we rattled our way along with Dad swerving every now and again to miss a particularly deep hole or a football sized boulder.  We saw kitesurfers, windsurfers and normal surfers dotted all along the coast, as well as a couple of quad bike/off road buggy tours passing by as we made our way along the road.

We popped out at Toston lighthouse in the end.

We went in and made our way up the tower, the views were pretty good:

There was also a small museum about fishing, it looked really hard work.  Not sure I want to be a fisherman thats for sure.

We drove on and eventually ended up back at El Cotillo beach again.  Seing as we had the swimmng and snorkelling gear in the car it would have been rude not to stop for a swim.

Once again there were plenty of fish by the rocks, the real highlight was this black and neon blue specimen, we'd never seen anything like it!

I stayed dry for once, did some digging and some sculpting in the lovely sand and examined the outcrops of volcanic rock.

Once we were out of the water we made use of the rock windbreaks people had built on the beach.  As it was late afternoon, people were beginning to leave so I managed to 'trade us up' to superior versions a few times until we ended up in this beauty:

It was also Halloween! 

We were so excited.

We had our costumes to don (which took up a sizeable portion of our luggage space) while the grown ups dotted the sweets they'd bought (which also took up a lot of luggage space I would imagine) around the villa and the grounds.

Then the hunt was on!

There were certainly some interesting places to hide the bounty around the place, it kept us busy for quite a while.

But once we had exhausted all the hiding places and our bags were bulging we headed off into the village for a meal, still in our costumes!

All the local kids were out trick or treating too, I shouted 'hola' at them, as I like to do but then got an enthusiastic answer in Spanish....which of course I couldn't understand a word of.

We had a lovely meal all together and the waiter pulled out all the stops for Halloween.  First of all he primed us to really scare one of the ladies as we left, secondly he sorted us out a special 'bloodshot' drink after we'd finished our meal.  It was a layered drink of different coloured fruit juices and it was delicious.

Well, I didn't really like it....

So I polished off Ellis' before necking Kimi and Marny's too.

Scaring the other lady that was working there paid off, we got to pick ourselves some sweets for a job well done:

Friday

Waterpark day!

So instead of our now usual sleepy lazy mornings we were up and at 'em.

We don't really have any pictures but there should be some video to see of it pretty soon.

It was great fun, and a lovely sunny day to be splashing about in the water.

There were loads of slides, starting at one side of the park getting progressively more scary as you moved along them.  We started at the least scary end and worked our way along.....all of them!!!

Yep, me too, even the tallest drop slidesalthough I didn't like the one that was completely dark.

I did, it was awesome, I had loads of goes and asked the man at the top for an extra push as I left the top.  On my last go, he span me round backwards in my ring and gave me a massive shove!  I loved it.

The lazy river was spectacularly lazy, like so lazy it barely even moved at all.  It was nice to take it easy for a bit though.

The wave pool was rather good, i did some cool body surfing with Andy which startled quite a lot of people who were having a nice paddle as we shot past them, half underwater.

The park itself was pretty cool, and not that busy so we got to spend some time sitting on our sunloungers (under the shade of an umbrella) recharging for another assault on the slides.

There was also a jumping platform into a really deep pool.

It was awesome, you could run along the platform and really jump for it.  Dad reckons my running bombs were among the best he'd ever seen.

I fancied a go too, it was a long drop and a long swim for a little one like me.  After one false start where I recoiled from the edge, I took heed of Ned's encouragement and went for it....twice!

She did really well, she was certainly the smallest person I saw make the leap.

You would have thought we'd had enough of the water by the time we got home, but no way, the pool beckoned for another session!

Had we mentioned 'Turdy' the turtle yet?

We had spotted him hanging outside a shop and knew we wanted him straight away.

We waited ages outside the shop while the man in the shop insisted he blew it up for us on his compressor, he reckoned we'd never have enough puff for it.

So we had to wedge him into the car fully inflated and drive back to the villa.  Must have been a sight to see!

Anyway, with that, the dolphin and Andy's airbed we had a blast.

My favourite move of the week was the front flip onto the air bed.  Amazingly Dad pulled off one perfect attempt at this (sadly he didn't manage to replicate this feat again).

Saturday

Back to our usual morning routine, lazy breakfast, swimming pool and a game or two of Sleeping Queens.

In the afternoon we visited a lovely looking surfing beach we spotted during our sand dune excursion.

I fell asleep in the car.

So I went surfing with Andy and Dad while Mum read her book.  The surfing was pretty wild as it goes, but I gave it my best shot and caught a few cracking waves right up onto the beach.  I also got a few total dunkings and a couple of 'washing machine' type hold downs.  I decided i'd had enough and went back to the car.

I'd woken up by this point so we went for a walk along the lovely sunny beach with Mum.

It was lovely, sunny and warm and the wind had dropped too.

We wandered along, past all the surfers to the other end of the beach and had it all to ourselves.

Of course we did some sand art:

We made our way into Corallejo on the way back for the highlight of the week, tut shopping!

We do love a good tut shoping session, I bought some well cool crystals.

And I took an age to commit to anything, finally settling on a shot glass to remind me of our halloween night out and a mosaic goat to remind me of the goats we frequently saw wandering around the countryside.

In the evening we headed back to the cafe for tea.  We saw some very cute chipmunks darting over the dry stone walls on the way!

And when we got back to the villa, Kimi and Marny had managed to get a cat to follow them back.  He was a lovely cute little cat too.

I'm not too sure Mum and Dad agreed with you though Ellis, he miaowed outside their patio door all night.....

Sunday

Another up and out morning.

We were off Kayaking.....

But with a thundestorm apparently looming our guide Jorge had to cancel it.

What a shame, we were so looking forward to it as well.

So our last day was thrown into turmoil.  It was a bit cloudy too....

We still had a pool session though, it still wasn't in any way cold.

We wandered down to the supermarket and bought an Oreo cheesecake packet mix.  Mum was confident we could muddle through the Spanish instructions okay.

But sadly the bit saying we needed an electric whisk was lost in translation.......three adults taking it in turns with a fork just wasn't quite so good.  Still, the end results were more than agreeable.

Monday

Going home day, up early, really early.

We had a ferry to catch, a Fred Olsen ferry to Lanzarote.

It was like a smaller version of the one we went to Jersey on.  We got seats right at the front (there was hardly anyone else on it) and set sail.

It was brilliant, bouncing up and down on the waves.  Although Ben didn't seem to think so.

The deck at the back was pretty smart too, as we could see Fuerteventura disappearing off into the distance:

Sadly it was a really short trip and we soon docked in Lanzarote.

We could already see the mini bus Andy had booked and we were soon sat in our seats and heading to the airport.

It didn't take long and we got to size up Lanzarote in view of maybe coming here on holiday some time.

After a brief situation with Mum and then Ben putting a family of scary haircuts trying to queue jump at check in their place (Ben thinks they'd just arrived on a flight from 1984) we were checked in on our Norwegian Air flight home.

Yeah, Norwegian Air, a new one for us, and very agreeable too.

Especially the free in flight Wifi.

We were soon back over England, which was pretty exciting, I was longing to see some lush green grass.

Even if it did look like a lot of it was under some big old puddles.

So that was that, another great week away, thanks as ever to everyone who came along, especially Andy who really made this one happen with his persistance in the booking stages.

Tuesday

Back to school, but we were strangely up for it actually.

Yeah, I was right back into it.  We've been learning about the great fire of London and it's really captivated me.  I know all the facts about it.

I spent my break time toast money on a poppy.

I was even dead keen on gymnastics this week.

And netball was back on, we were both well and truly back on it.

Wednesday

I was pretty impressed with the Indian Mars rocket on the morning news!  How cool.

Have we mentioned our heating has packed up?

It's certainly a lot chillier than Fuerteventura thats for sure.

The repair man came, stayed really late but couldn't fix it.

Thursday

We danced to 'What's a fox say' at after school dance club.  Becky took great pleasure in telling Dad that only I could have come up with a one legged fox/chicken dance for the freestyle section in the middle.

The heating man came back inthe evening, he still didn't fix it.....

And Mum worked really late so didn't even tuck us in.

Friday

I earned a marble at school, for my willingness to answer questions.

We played parachute games indoors with the sports leaders as it was wet for Golden Time. The washing machine game was brilliant, but not without a few injuries (bumped heads).

In the evening it was the school fireworks display.

Indeed it was, we'd been super excited about this one, especially with the prospect of a Mr Jones bonfire.

There were plenty of people there and the fire was alight by the time we got there.

We warmed ourselves up by the fire and had a hot chocolate while we waited for the fireworks to start.

It wasn't long, and they really were very good.

They were, I loved watching them.  Once they were over and done with we moved back to the bonfire and sure enough Mr Jones moved the fence right in so we could get nice and close to the fire.

To soak up some much needed heat to take home.....

Saturday

Our annual trip to Marlborough for advent calendars.

Are we early this year? Who knows, the shop had them in stock so i'll say no I think.

We spent ages in the toy shop talking to the assistant about Hex Bugs!

We also went to get some small radiators to tide us over while we are without proper heating. We were ridiculously excited about them.

At least we had warm bedrooms, I think our excitement was justified.

Sunday

A family trip to the Chinese restaurant Sunday lunch buffet with the family?

Sounds good to us.

Even better though was a trip back to Auntie Christines afterwards for a few games and some cake, brilliant!

Tuesday

We were very much still Ned free.  We didn't really miss him though of course.  Even if I had made a card for him......

It was our last gymnastics session before the competition at the weekend, excitng stuff. 

After tea we had a trip to the park, we had so much time not having to wait for Ned to finish his meal.

Wednesday

I got picked up today, after my most awesome two nights away.  Dad asked if I was ready to come home, I had to be honest and say no, I wanted to stay longer!

So, we'll go back a bit if thats okay with you and i'll fill you in on my Ufton Court trip.......

(Ufton Court Update)

So Mum drove me there, I was so excited when the building loomed into view as we made the approach up the long drive:

Our dormitory was on the right hand side top floor as you look at the picture, and although I didn't have a top bunk I had the best bed view out of the grounds, it was lovely.

The grounds were great fun to explore.  If the outside was impressive, the inside was equally as good, I loved the great hall with it's medieval ceiling.

Our days were packed full of cool stuff, we did brass rubbing, orienteering, stick whittling, making nice smelling posies from the herb garden, archery and tended to the animals in their vey own farm.  Bubble and squeak were my favourites, the pigs!

We also had a simulated raid on the building, I played the role of the lord of the manor, we had to hide the priests from the soldiers. 

There were plenty of fun times as well, like our bedroom fashion show and bed bouncing.

The highlight of the trip had to be the Tudor banquet though:

We had to all get dressed up, including tights for the boys of course.  It was great fun, we had to serve the ladies their dinners first and then afterwards dance with them, I danced with Rebecca.  We even got to drink some special mead, which was very nice indeed.

Once the Tudor business was all done we watched the England football game on telly, very un-Tudor!

Bed times were pretty late in comparison to those at home at 9pm which was well cool.

Then there was the food, being a little bit fussy I was a little worried about this, I needn't have been.  We had sausages and chips, roast chicken and even fajitas.  It was okay too, but even better were the plentiful supply of between meals snacks....biscuits!

You can see why I was in no hurry to come home!

So there we have it, my first trip away on my own done.

By the time we did get home I was quite excited to go and pick Ellis up it has to be said.

Yeah, we had a lovely cuddle when I came out if school, I suppose I had missed him really.

Then the later nights caught up with me......

Thursday

I was not looking forward to going back to school one little bit.  It was okay in the end though, we had to write about Ufton.

We went to the park after school.

Excellent!

Our new thing is doing a 'superman' on the basket swing.  This incolves holding on to it while ot is sent round it's way, then releasing one arm to hsve out in front of you like the caped crusader. I got Dad to give me a push.....trouble is he gave me too much of a push, the sort of push he gives Ellis while she's sat in it.  This was way too much for a superman....I kept hold as best as I could but it was no use and I got flung accross the playground at very high speed.  Several onlookers gasped in horror as I flew accross the grass and landed in a very cringe inducing splits type of manouver and then slumped to the ground in tears.....of laughter! It was awesome!

Friday

We had the sports leaders in for rugby during golden time, this proved to be the final nail in the coffin for my latest pair of trainers though....oh dear.

And I had my first week of the new swimming term, seeing the old gang og myself, Eva and Barney re-united, with the addition of Eloise from school too!

We came home and had a couple of games of Friday night monopoly and then a sneaky game of Catan, which I won yet again.

Saturday

Well we were all primed and ready for my competitive gymnastics debut....so it was a shame that Dad had actually got the wrong day.  We thought the gymnastics club looked rather quiet when we arrived at lunchtime.....because the competition wasn't until tomorrow!

What a doofus.  Still, we hastily made alternative arrangements and had a trip to Donnington Castle with Luca and Matice.

I seemed to get injured a lot....I'll blame the boys I think.

We acted out several battle scenarios, our favourite being trying to get to the castle without being spotted by the gaurds (Mum and Dad)

Sunday

The actual day of the gymnastics competition......

We went to Sainsbury's in the morning to buy food to donate to the food bank for my harvest festival.  It was really enjoyable, even if some of my suggestions were turned down.

We had lunch and then headed down to the gym, which was much more busy than it had been yesterday.  I had to sign in and then wait for my age group to start.  I really wasn't at all nervous and was enjoying myself.  

We were split into four groups and made our way around the different disciplines.  We had a practice go at each and then we were judged.

We did the beam (did well), the trampet (faceplanted on landing), the floor (did well, personal best handstand I reckon):

the vault (did okay):

And my favourite, the bars (loved it loved it loved it):

I didn't stop smiling throughout the whole thing and barely gave Mum, Dad and Ned a glance.

Yeah, it wasn't actually that boring Ellis, I did have the Ipad though....

We got to watch some of the older girls do their stuff while the scores were being totted up, they were pretty awesome!

And then it was results time.  I was wishing so hard for a medal, so equal third place for my floor routine was just brilliant:

Not bad seeing as I only started going in February!

Once I was home though I wasn't bothered about it, I didn't march around the house parading my medal or anything.......

I would have done!!!!

Monday

Our last week before half term, hooray!

With it being our last dance session before halloween, it was of course thriller week.  Cue zombie dancing all round, great fun.

Hope we do it on Thursday......

We've been a bit slack on the reading front at home lately, so we both had to do some with Mum after tea.....groan!!!! She's such a hard task master, Dad's a pushover.

October 21 edit from Part Time on Vimeo.

Tuesday

I was tired out after school and all set to give gymnastics a miss, until Dad pointed out that it was only two weeks until our competition.  I decided I ought to cram in all the practice I could get and to get down there quick smart.  It went really well and I really enjoyed myself.  I'm still practicing my splits and i'm starting to get pretty close to pulling it off.

Wednesday

I got my school photo back today, it's actually pretty good too!  Much to Mum and Dad's surprise.

I'm doing harder spellings still, I still haven't been found out.  This weeks were particularly difficult I think, all on a shape theme (rhombus, parallelogram, equilateral, you get the picture).

It was my first week of indoor team Kennet as well, I loved it, the rest of the family arrived early top pick me up and were very impressed with my running.  I love the confined space and the turning boards we used propped up at each end of the hall.  I always make sure I never look round and dip for the line, even though we're only training.

Thursday

I got my school photo back too, again it's a really nice shot.

In my after school dancing the final part involved getting a willing accomplice from the crowd, in my case Dad and Ellis were on hand.  They were both more than willing to get involved too, in Dads case maybe a little too willing?

Our rooms for Ufton Court were announced too, I was well pleased as i'm in with loads of my mates.

After our bath I asked Mum to give me loads of little platts so i'd have curly hair in the morning...

And I got to try out my new 'Ufton Court' destined dressing gown:

A little large maybe, but so snuggly and soft.  I've barely taken the thing off since i've got it.

Friday

Well the hair worked out a treat:

Curly as a curly thing! I went off to school proper pleased but got rather bored of people asking me about it after a quite a short time.

It was fun week at swimming, brilliant it was too!

I had my school disco, I was buzzing.  I danced all night and came home pink as usual then watched the end of the England football match.

Saturday

Swimming, Bracknell.

Awesome, it was really nice, it really is a lot less grotty than The Oasis it has to be said.  My biggest achievement was going down the super fast slide....twice.  Even though you apparently have to be 8 to go on them (as we found out after i'd been on them already)

I did the good big brother bit and went up the tower with her, i'm good like that.

It was a swift Mcdonalds for lunch.

And then a quick play on the park before heading for a spot of shopping...

Before coming home for strictly and snuggling.

Sunday

What a horrible, grey, wet day.

We decided the best use of such a day would be to stay in our pyjamas, eat well, watch telly and play board games.

We did indeed, although I did get packed for Ufton Court!

Have I mentioned my trip to Ufton Court yet at all?  Ha ha, it is seriously exciting.

Monday

Ned was up early and full of Ufton excitement, quite honestly i'm pretty glad he's going today as i've just about heard enough about it now!

Mum took me to Ufton in the car once we'd dropped Ellis off at school.  I took a load of snapshots when we pulled up the drive, it was certainly a lovely looking Tudor building. I was glad to see Robert and Ben were already there when we arrived.  I was the envy of them with my smart wheeled bag which I dragged carefree accross the gravel while they struggled with their holdalls. Mum gave me a kiss and I told her in no uncertain terms it was time for her to leave now.

So I came from scool to a Nedless house.  I got sole custody of the telly remote which was rather nice.  We also had a really civilised evening meal, plenty of pleasant conversation and no waiting for hours on end for Ned to finish........

Tuesday

Full bore on the castle project for me this week.  I've really been putting the hours in chopping and sticking and slicing to create my masterpiece.  It's taking shape very nicely.

Netball is going really well after school, we're really starting to enjoy it and get the flow going.

Wednesday

I took my castle to school, even though it wasn't finished.  Everyone was very impressed with the size of my creation.

In the evening we went to visit St Barts school for their open evening.  The head teacher's speech was pretty boring it has to be said.......

There wasn't quite as much hands on stuff to get involved in as Park House but I loved mooching about anyway.

I warmed to the place considerably during our tour it has to be said, the sport looked good and I got to have a go at batting in the cricket nets which was cool.  The free biscuits were very pleasant and in plentiful supply.  We missed Trinity's so maybe i'll have a look at that next year, i've still got a while to go before any decisions have to be made thankfully.

Thursday

I'm really enthusiastic about school at the moment.  So much so that when I got home I decided to write a poem about the dragon rollercoaster at Legoland, and very good it was too.  It just so appened it was also national poetry day, what a coincidence eh?

Games Workshop...at last.  I bought my Warhammer starter set with my saved up birthday money after a lot of thought.  I was so excited about it and spent ages building my figures up. The instruction book for the game itself though is huuuuuuge!

Friday

Had our friday spelling test, the homework has obviously paid off....how about a 10 out of 10 this week then?  Yeah, impressive stuff I reckon, especially as i'm now in the top group and the words are rather hard.

I took my castle to school, now complete with working port-cullis, drawbridge and various royal family members dotted around the battlements.  It may not have been as well coloured in as some of the others but in terms of size and functionality it was top of the class I think.

Still not allowed to ride to swimming....booo!

I haven't passed the course this term sadly.  Neither has Eva though so thats okay.  I did get some very good comments on the report though, saying I was a pleasure to teach.  It also said I would do a lot better if I wasn't almost always underwater between swimming activity so I could listen to what i'm being taught a bit more.

Saturday

Mum went to work today, a bit of a rarity.

It was okay though, Dad had booked the cinema in the morning for Monsters University.

We still love the cinema big time.

In the afternoon I skateboarded off to Hugo's for a bit.

Dad and I snuggled up on the sofa watching gymastics on the telly, it was pretty impressive stuff.

In the evening we went to Max and Leo's, so that was a late night and lots of fun!

Sunday

A great team effort, 10 o'clock lie ins all round.

Thn pancakes for breakfast.

Then off to the beach with fresh bread rolls, bacon and the camping stove.

The smell of bacon wafted all along the prom, we drew many an envious glance from passers by and even a few comments.  Bacon rolls taste so much better down the beach, I couldn't praise them highly enough.

We were drawn to the water of course, especially when the tide went out a bit

We were happy paddling for a bit

But the water really didn't seem that cold

And the sun was so lovely and warm, it was only a matter of time before we were stripped off and had a proper swim

It was lovely in there

We dried orselves off using Mums cardy, thanks Mum we really appreciated that.

We tounded off our trip with a visit to Tesco for some sweets before heading for home.

Monday

Back ro school then, refreshed from an ace weekend.

There was no dance perforance for the parents today, we're deep inpreparations for John Rankin's got talent.

I headed straight down the park after school on my skateboard.  Its a good route, gently dowwnhill all the way.  I just carry it home.....

Our very own version of the card game Sleeping Queens has arrived (seeing as Laura actually wanted hers back, what a shame).  So we've been having a good few games of that!

Tuesday

Our Tudor project is still full on at school.  We spent a good part of the day doing Tudor art, drawing wooden artists dummies and then adorning them with authentic period costumes, I loved it.

Mum had a meeting at school in the morning, all about what we'll be learning this year.  Bit of a shame, means I can't really fob her off about what we're supposed to be doing.

Wednesday

It's that time of year again, school council elections!  I really need to work on my manifesto for next year as apparently being a good listener and not being afraid to voice the concerns raised by my fellow classmates is seemingly not enough to get you elected in the face of an offer of Ipads for everyone to use at school.  Needless to say I didn't win, and the Ipad promiser did, lets see how he delivers on that one.......

It was aslo Maxim's last day as he's moved to Falkland school.  Although we didn't always see eye to eye (probably down to our competitve sporting nature) i'll really miss him.  Still, i'm sure our paths will cross frequently enough what with team Kennet and the various schools athletics competitions.

We had to have a quick dash to the sports shop after school as well, football club starts at lunchtimes on Thursdays instead of after school, meaning I can go!  Exciting stuff eh?  I had to get some shinpads and some football socks.  The socks were hilarious, they were soooooo long.

Right, maybe I can get a word in now Ned?  I was awarded a marble for my writing today, one and a half sides! That must be a record?

I also made a lovely present for Owen, comprising some bubble wrap, brightly coloured pipecleaners, some folded strips of coloured paper and a healthy dose of sticky tape.  Dad gave it to him that evening when they went out, he was apparently very pleased with it.

Thursday

Even though lunch itself was a bit of a rush, football club was really good fun.

We also had a few extra viewers for our our after school dance club, with a selection of teachers having a watch.  It was cool to see my teacher among them.  Especially as after the dancing had finished she told Dad how brilliant I was at our P,S,H & E workshop earlier in the day.  Apparently I was very enthusiastic, very poite (it was with teachers from outside the school) and I had a lot of valuable input to the session.  Predictably, Dad asked if she'd got me mixed up with another pupil somehow.

Friday

We went swimming by bike.   

Brilliant!

The lesson went by in a flash as usual and we made sure we had time for a few laps of the wafty pump track at the top of the hill....

....and of course a high speed trip whizzing back down the hill.

Once tea was done and dusted we decided to have a game of monopoly.

It didn't go too well and ended up with Mum losing the plot and us getting packed off to bed rather earlier than we woud have liked.

Saturday

Off to Newbury show, with the lure of the animals I was well up for it,

I on the other hand did not want to go at all.  After the pure drudgery of the craft tent, my fears appeared to be justified....dull city.  But, then there was the food tent, with all it's delicious freebies.  From cheese and marmite bread, to chocolate, to fudge to chili sauce I was all over it.  I was converted to the show there and then.

Then there was he animals of course, starting off with these doggies:

There was hundreds of them! I then got to help in a sheepdog show too.

Then there was the slightly not so real piggies:

But the real ones were much more cute it has to be said:

We really wanted to buy a piglet, although seeing the full grown versions made us reconsider this idea, they were massive!

There were all orts of other weird and wonderful things to see:

And one of my favourite things of the whole day, this little dog, who worked for the Fire brigade:

He loved a game of fetch and never seemed to tire of it at all.

Another real highlight was the sports area.

We got to bounce:

We got to climb:

We got play some football:

And then we picked our own specialist activities, I went for badminton.

And I went for wrestling.  It was totally brilliant, the emphasis was on technique and skill rather than brute force and mindless violence with games involving snatching a tag from each others ankles or belt loops.  I took on various challengers and lapped it up, the chaps teaching it were super cool as well.

And while he was grappling I got a baminton lesson, which I was really into.  I'm stimll a bit too young for their club but i'm dead keen to go when i'm old enough.

I think my real highlight of the day was our Land Rover ride though.

Yeah, fortunatley the man let me on even though I wasn't actually tall enough.  Good job I was wearing my Reading Football club crown to give me a few extra centimetres.

We got to pick where we sat too, I couldn't believe I got the front seat uncontested.

Me and mum sat in the two seats right at the back, leaving Dad in the middle on his own.

Our driver was really cool, apparently he made the special edition versions in the week and then got to drive them at the weekends.  He revved it up and took off around the test track route, it was steep, deep and pretty wild.

I couldn't believe how crazy it was and I think Dad was terrified we were going to tip over sideways on more than one occasion.

It was awesome, me, Ellis and Dad would have gone and bought a Land Rover right there and then given half a chance.

We rounded out the day watching a cattle parade in the main ring. I loved all the baby cows and bulls.

And Mum and I laughed our heads off at the bulls massive nadgers!

Auntie Trish was on babysitting duties in the evening, we were suitably tired out for her.

Although we managed a rather late night of course.  We wathched the war film the great escape, which we totally loved, especially the motorbike jump!

And then we also managed to watch Through the Keyhole with Keith Lemon who we find totally hilarious.

Great night, thanks Autie Trish.

Sunday

We had Alan, Hayley and Anne round for Sunday lunch, we do love having visitors round.

Even if I did manage to sneak off down the prk with Hugo shortly after lunch.....

Monday

After a few days of complaining on and off about my ear hurting, I finally succumbed to it big style.  I was in tears when Dad came to get me from dancing after school. It was not a good nights sleep on Monday it has to said......

Tuesday

So after last nights ear related trauma, I had the day off school.  Oh dear.

So I had to go in alone.  I had a good day though, my Tudor art was deemed so good it was paraded around in front of the class.  They must have been impressed with it, most of them copied it!

I went to the doctors in the afternoon, ear infection confirmed.  Nasty banana medicine given, not that nice orange flavoured stuff Ned had!

Wednesday

Our last outdoor team Kennet session of the summer.  Just as well really, it was pretty dark by home time.  Dad reckons I was on fire this week though and was looking faster than ever in the running he saw me do.

Thursday

We may be a year early with this but we decided to vsit the Park House open evening.  It was seriously impressive.  We listened to a talk from some pupils and the headmaster and then got a guided tour by a current 6th former.  Wow, what a load of cool stuff you get to do at big school. We got to try all sorts, from setting fire to stuff in the science lab, tasting food in the cookery area, playing keyboards in the music room, watching dance performances in the studio to test driving sewing machines in the textiles area.

I loved the gym too, exercise equipment and loud thumping music.

It was quite an eye opener thats for sure.  I need to see what St Barts has to offer now.

Friday

After last weeks Monopoly row being put down to tiredness after riding to and from swimming after a busy week at school, we were back in the car.

Yeah, we weren't happy about that at all, but on the plus side we did get to play a couple of games of monopoly in a much better frame of mind!

Saturday

We had an early-ish appointment for Mums phone to be looked at in Basingstoke.

So we hit a few shops as well, got myself a lovely new purple winter coat.

And I bought my black tights for Ufton Court.

The Apple shop was next, we'd never been in one before and it was pretty snazzy it has to be said.  I got myself a little bean bag thing and got busy on some low level Ipads.

There were computers, Ipads, Ipad mini's and Iphones all over the place, I loved it and geeked out big time.

It was a bit of a shame Mum got her phone sorted out quite quickly really.

We let Mum try a few items of clothing on in a few shops beore heading to the golden arches for lunch....it's been a while.

In the afternoon it was Luca's party.

I got an invite too, as a friend for Hugo.

It was at Eddie Katz, we had a great time as you can imagine.

For a second week running, Auntie Trish came round to babysit!

I know, we couldn't believe our luck either.

We played Monopoly, ate sweets and enjoyed some Saturday night telly and conversation, brilliant. 

Thanks again.

Sunday

Legoland! 

For a full day out this time, we wrre pretty excited about it as it may well have been our last trip of the season, it closes next month. 

It was the usual fun and games, even though mine and dads boat breakingdown on the boating school was a bit of a low point, still, we got another go as compensation.

A very pleasant surprise in the afternoon, we ran into the Halfords on Leo's birthday outing.

We had a ride on the pirate ship with them:

We also had a wander around the model village with them which was cool.

We headed off in our separate ways after that though, Leo had some birthday money to spend in the lego shop.

And we had to go on the dragon rollercoaster, right at the front:

We decided to round our day out in a soggy way, two goes on the Viking river rapids and a trip on the log flume made sure we were very soggy indeed.

Monday

No after school clubs for either of us today, just some quality sofa time with the telly.

And then some homework.  I'm making a castle, I have some very grand ideas for it so hopefully it comes to fruitionthe way I want it to.

I've got noticably more this year.  Spellings, sentences, maths problems and our learning log projects.....grumble, grumble, grumbe.